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Attention allocation to facial expressions of emotion among persons with Williams and Down syndromes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2016

Karen J. Goldman ,
Cory Shulman ,
Yair Bar-Haim ,
Rany Abend  and
Jacob A. Burack
Karen J. Goldman*
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem David Yellin Academic College of Education
Cory Shulman
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Yair Bar-Haim
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
Rany Abend
Affiliation:
Tel Aviv University
Jacob A. Burack
Affiliation:
McGill University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Karen Goldman, David Yellin Academic College of Education, P.O. Box 3578, Jerusalem 91035, Israel; E-mail: [email protected].
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Abstract

Individuals with Williams syndrome and those with Down syndrome are both characterized by heightened social interest, although the manifestation is not always similar. Using a dot-probe task, we examined one possible source of difference: allocation of attention to facial expressions of emotion. Thirteen individuals with Williams syndrome (mean age = 19.2 years, range = 10–28.6), 20 with Down syndrome (mean age = 18.8 years, range = 12.1–26.3), and 19 typically developing children participated. The groups were matched for mental age (mean = 5.8 years). None of the groups displayed a bias to angry faces. The participants with Williams syndrome showed a selective bias toward happy faces, whereas the participants with Down syndrome behaved similarly to the typically developing participants with no such bias. Homogeneity in the direction of bias was markedly highest in the Williams syndrome group whose bias appeared to result from enhanced attention capture. They appeared to rapidly and selectively allocate attention toward positive facial expressions. The complexity of social approach behavior and the need to explore other aspects of cognition that may be implicated in this behavior in both syndromes is discussed.

Type
Regular Articles
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 29 , Issue 4 , October 2017 , pp. 1189 - 1197
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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Footnotes

This research was funded by a grant from the Eisenberg Foundation (to K.J.G.). We thank all of the participants and their families and schools for their assistance in carrying out this research. We also thank Prof. Doron Gothelf and Dr. Ariel Tennenbaum for their help in recruiting participants with Williams syndrome and Down syndrome, respectively, and Dr. Asael Sklar for his help and advice. The authors have no potential or competing conflicts of interest.

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